Semir has stopped being the "Chinese version of ZARA" and turned to Uniqlo as a teacher
Senmir, who once said he wanted to be the "Chinese version of ZARA", decided to change the "school". Recently, the leisure clothing brand Sema released a new positioning of "comfortable experience quality life" in Hangzhou Trade Union CC store, and opened the first flagship store after the brand transformation. The new Semar store is designed to be a "one-stop shopping retail space" covering adult and children's wear, where the products on display focus on "simple design and comfortable versions" to meet the needs of different age groups.
This is a high-profile move by Semir after launching its brand transformation in 2023. In 2023, Semar brand readjusted its positioning and began to provide adult clothing, children's clothing and home products for the family scene, highlighting the characteristics of "life, quality and comfort". Since the interim financial report of that year, the target customer group of Semir brand has changed from the previous "new youth after 95" to "Chinese mass family".
That sounds a lot like Uniqlo's positioning - and that's what Semma has to learn.
The "young owner" of Semma clothing, the current chairman Qiu Qiangli has previously publicly stated that he wants to build Semma into a "Chinese version of ZARA". And now from the expansion of the product scene and target audience, to no longer highlight fashion and emphasize comfort, Semma has clearly abandoned the ZARA line.
Although Uniqlo's growth in China is also slowing, a clothing business model that can cover the basic needs of both young and old may be a safer path. More importantly, Uniqlo still does not have a local competitor in China that can truly compete with it. The vacancy of this position also means a market opportunity.
In addition, Cheng Weixiong, an independent analyst of the fashion industry and founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., LTD., told Jiemian News that the consumer experience in the Chinese market has changed from being dominated by offline to online and offline connectivity. In the field of casual clothing, small and flexible online brands often have a faster pace than large-scale brands such as Semma, and there is no shortage of advantages in price.
Semir Clothing does not disclose the performance of each brand separately in the financial report, but the casual clothing business dominated by Semir brands has declined significantly in the past few years. From 2018 to 2023, the revenue of the casual clothing business declined from 6.792 billion yuan to 4.171 billion yuan, and the proportion of the total revenue also fell from 43.21% to 30.54%. In contrast, during the same period, the revenue of children's clothing business represented by Bala Bala under Semir Clothing increased from 8.825 billion yuan to 9.373 billion yuan.
Semir is not the only brand to see the Uniqlo model as a way to break the game. In fact, many Chinese brands have ambitions to become the "Uniqlo of China."
Interface news mentioned in a previous report that the local underwear company Cat People Group launched the technology leisure wear global brand Beauty City in 2023, and said that it would achieve GMV of 10 billion yuan within three years. Earlier, there is a light sports brand COCOFIT founded in 2021 claimed to do the Chinese sports version of Uniqlo, Metersbonwe founder Zhou Chengjian also in 2017 interview with the first financial said that 20% of the products to have Uniqlo like cost-effective, the remaining 80% of the products are richer than Uniqlo style.
In addition, although BENLAI, a sub-brand of local fast fashion brand URBAN REVIVO, has not indicated that it wants to standard UniQLO, its brand positioning has been adjusted from the "new generation of basic models" that emphasized youth before to the current "performance technology casual wear" that focuses on comfort, which is more or less the shadow of Uniqlo.
In Cheng Weixiong's view, the Chinese mass market has always had a demand for both quality and cost-effective products. As a brand with a huge channel and supply chain base, Semir's choice to transition to a broader mass market is understandable, even desirable.
But becoming the "Uniqlo of China" is not easy. Cheng Weixiong believes that the success of UniQLO is not to do basic models, but to consolidate the basic disk from the surface accessories supply chain link, and fully control the design and development, marketing channels, user service and other links, and fully implement the idea of brand integration. Chinese brands have not been able to emerge a "China Uniqlo", partly due to the lack of such long-term brand thinking, still dominated by the business thinking of selling goods.
The same goes for Semar. At present, Semma clothing is highly dependent on e-commerce and offline franchise channels as a whole, accounting for 45.59% and 42.31% respectively in 2023, while the proportion of offline direct sales is only 10.06%.
"To do China UniqLO, we must really start from the surface accessories to pave the way, for the franchise-led Semma Clothing, how to grasp the initiative is the key to do China Uniqlo." Cheng Weixiong said.
It can be imagined that when promoting brand transformation needs to fight for the cooperation of many parties, the resistance will only be greater. This not only tests the management level of the brand, but also requires sufficient strategic focus. Especially for a brand of the size of Semar, it is not a short-term project to drive transformation to a point where consumers can really feel the change.
Cheng Weixiong told the interface news, from the transformation experience of other brands in the industry such as Bosideng, there is a lag in brand transformation, generally speaking, it will take at least three to five years to see the effect.
Article source: Interface News
